Snow in Summer and Other Simple Joys

Frank and I have been up at our new place for the past couple of days. There's so much to learn about our home, our surroundings, the wildlife and our own everyday life. I'm not here full time yet as I still have to return to the city to continue readying my house for sale.

In the short time that we've been here, we were greeted by a great blue heron upon our arrival, have watched an osprey fly by with a fresh catch, were serenaded by a family of loons (I can hear their haunting call right now as I type) and have had countless close encounters with hummingbirds and chickadees.

Yesterday morning, I watched the sun rise over the forested hill across the bay. It was beautiful sky and of course, I took photos so that I could share it with you, but Frank's laptop is being fussy about communicating with my camera and so they will have to wait until after my two week stay here is over, and I head back to the city to continue prepping for the real move. In the meantime, I'll offer some photos which I took around Frank's previous place a few weeks ago.

On this warm, summer day, it snowed in southern Ontario...


There's something especially nice about a sunny day after the rain. Perhaps it's partly because the many puddles duplicate the beautiful surrounding, providing us with even more of Mother Nature's finest.






They say that the early bird catches the worm. I think this female red winged blackbird would have to agree.






I suppose there were some worms involved in this boy's day also.






Seeing that he had competition, the Great Blue decided to fish elsewhere.






The daisies stood all fresh and crisp to welcome the day.






And tiger lilies seemed to open and soak up the warmth of the sun.







This dragonfly had seen better days but he seemed to know when to stop, rest and have a sun bath.






These clouds looked rather innocuous.






And yet it snowed for days - at least a week.





Cottonwood seeds. They're in the forecast every year.

I hope you enjoyed my snowy summer day. More photos coming up soon.

Sing a Rainbow

Red and yellow and pink and green, purple and orange and blue,

I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow too.

Listen with your ears, listen with your eyes, and sing everything you see,

Now you can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow, sing along with me.

~ Arthur Hamilton

Red




and yellow




and pink




and green,




purple




and orange




and blue,




I can sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow too.




Listen with your ears,




listen with your eyes,




and sing everything you see,




Now you can sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow,
sing along with me.

Summer, Don't Go!

Below are a few summer photos and quotes.


Then followed that beautiful season... Summer....
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow




Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don't they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers.
~ Ray Bradbury




And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.
~ F. Scott Fitzgerald




Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.
~ Henry James




It was a splendid summer morning and it seemed as if nothing could go wrong.
~ John Cheever




In summer, the song sings itself.
~ William Carlos Williams




Of all the wonders of nature, a tree in summer is perhaps the most remarkable; with the possible exception of a moose singing ''Embraceable You'' in spats.
~ Woody Allen




How sweet I roamed from field to field, and tasted all the summer's pride.
~ William Blake




Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.
~ John Lubbock




Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.
~ Russel Baker




A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.
~ James Dent




These are the days of the endless summer
These are the days, the time is now
There is no past, there’s only future
There’s only here, there’s only now.
~ Van Morrison

More in a few days!

Cottage Delights

Last week, were were back at Frank's family cottage, enjoying sunshine, fishing, swimming and lovely sunsets. However, the photos below go back to our June visit to the cottage. We hope to head back up there semi-soon so I'm continuing my "summer hours" of scheduled posts and sporadic visits to your fine blogs. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy whichever photos I manage to post.

It rained one of the first days we were up there but toward evening, the sun came out to brighten our beautiful surroundings. The hammock looked especially vibrant in the late day glow.

When there's rain, there's mosquitoes. And when they're out in full force, thankfully so are the dragonflies. This beauty took a rest atop the colourful stripes of the same hammock seen in the previous photo.

Another lovely dragonfly landed on my jeans and proceeded to climb up the outside of my leg. I managed to snap a pic just before he was to close to get into focus.

Late in the day, the saturated sunlight streams through the back porch windows. Frank's fishing rods were all lined up and ready to go.

So ends another lovely day.

More cottage photos coming up soon.

Randomness

We're back from the cottage for about a week, then we hope to return. The weather has been mostly nice if you include rain as nice. And I do. We had a great mix of sun and showers which lent itself to lots of photos. Of course, I haven't even looked at most of what was shot yet, so I'm going to post a few older images while I buy some time work on more current shots. I don't know if I'll ever catch up, but I'm going to have fun trying.

I hope to resume visits to some blogs this week, too. You don't want to know how many hundreds of posts have collected in my Google Reader while I was away!

The following are a few random photos left over from last month.

A most curious sight caught my attention one day while walking. Which bird is bright red with a black head, I wondered? And a red beak? And the occasional stray red feather on its head? A bald Cardinal, that's what. I've since seen a few more around my place and Frank's. According to a number of websites, it's not all that unusual at this time of year though nobody seems to know for sure why it happens. Mostly likely it's part of a normal moulting process.

This is the first dragonfly which held still long enough for me to photography this year. Frank got some great shots of various species up at the cottage and I'm sure he'll be sharing some of those with you when time permits.

A lone daisy catching the late-day rays.

One sunny afternoon, I was taking a walk in the park. I encountered a few girls who appeared to be having a picnic. It was only when I stopped to photograph something else, that I noticed the item which ulitmately drew me to snap this shot. Take a look beside the girl on the bench.





They were smoking shisha - a sweetened tobacco.

This little sweetie is my neighbour, Leah. I'm glad this she's protecting her beautiful head while out bike riding.

And last, but never least, we END with another little neighbour, Lily. She's undergoing a quick diaper check by her dad.

More photos as soon as I can get to them.

Happy Independence Day to my Amurikan neighbours!

Potluck

The following photos are images that just never fit in with any of my recent posts so they're getting served up as a leftover potluck post.

Earlier this month, when we were with our son after getting his license, we stopped at a restaurant for a celebratory lunch. I love dragonflies, as to which this post might attest, and when I saw this one up on a Tiffany lamp, I had to snap it.

Just over a month ago, the ground was clear, but icy. This scraggly, but heroic maple leaf weathered the winter, to show off its textured finery.

Less than two weeks ago, after we'd had balmy temperatures of 14C (57F), Mother Nature decided that we had become too complacent. She spent all night and all day blowing this white stuff all over the neighbourhood. It's almost entirely gone now.

Speaking of white stuff, Alex opened a new carton of ice cream to find that it left an impression of a bear print on the lid.

Sunlight streaming in through the back window of my living room and across the piano and bench. I thought it made an attractive image.

Teeny-tiny flowers budding on a plant in the kitchen. Each one is no larger than an eraser on the end of a pencil. I can't wait until it's mild enough to put my plants back outside for the summer.

I hope you enjoyed the potluck. Coffee, anyone?